Vehicular suicide is the use of a motor vehicle to intentionally cause one's own

death Death is the end of life; the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism. Death eventually and inevitably occurs in all organisms. The remains of a former organism normally begin to decompose sh ...

Suffocation

Suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

carbon monoxide poisoning Carbon monoxide poisoning typically occurs from breathing in carbon monoxide (CO) at excessive levels. Symptoms are often described as " flu-like" and commonly include headache, dizziness, weakness, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion. Large ...

may be attempted by running the engine in an enclosed garage, or by piping the

exhaust gas Exhaust gas or flue gas is emitted as a result of the combustion of fuels such as natural gas, gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, fuel oil, biodiesel blends, or coal. According to the type of engine, it is discharged into the atmosphere through ...

into the driver's compartment with a hose, but

catalytic converter A catalytic converter part is an vehicle emissions control, exhaust emission control device which converts toxic gases and pollutants in exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine into less-toxic pollutants by catalysis, catalyzing a redox ...

s required for

air quality Air pollution is the presence of substances in the Atmosphere of Earth, air that are harmful to humans, other living beings or the environment. Pollutants can be Gas, gases like Ground-level ozone, ozone or nitrogen oxides or small particles li ...

regulations eliminate over 99% of carbon monoxide produced.

Traffic collisions

Intentional

traffic collision A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. Tr ...

s may be a chosen method of suicide where

speed limit Speed limits on road traffic, as used in most countries, set the legal maximum speed at which vehicles may travel on a given stretch of road. Speed limits are generally indicated on a traffic sign reflecting the maximum permitted speed, express ...

s are high enough to produce fatal

deceleration In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Acceleration is one of several components of kinematics, the study of motion. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnit ...

. Modern cars have high rates of acceleration and can easily reach very high speeds in short distances, while most cannot protect occupants from

disability Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be Cognitive disability, cognitive, Developmental disability, d ...

or death in frontal impact collisions exceeding . Motor vehicles can be tempting as machines of self-injury or -destruction for individuals attempting to disguise their suicidal motivation, because widespread use of the word

accident An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not deliberately caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that the event may have been caused by Risk assessment, unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Many researchers, insurers ...

implies traffic collisions are unintentional, and because traffic collisions are already so frequent. The percentage of suicides among the tens of thousands of people killed annually in United States traffic collisions is unknown because suicides are often misclassified as accidents if no suicide note is found. Considering the large number of suicides by other methods, it would be remarkable if vehicles were less used as a convenient method of self-destruction trying to minimize insurance and religious complications. In addition, many attempts at driver suicide presumably result in permanent disabilities rather than death. The probability and severity of traffic collisions may be increased by suicidal behaviors including

drunk driving Drunk driving (or drink-driving in British English) is the act of driving under the influence of alcohol. A small increase in the blood alcohol content increases the relative risk of a motor vehicle crash. In the United States, alcohol is in ...

and

speeding Speed limits on road traffic, as used in most countries, set the legal maximum speed at which vehicles may travel on a given stretch of road. Speed limits are generally indicated on a traffic sign reflecting the maximum permitted speed, expre ...

. These risky driving behaviors are associated with depression as contributing factors to vehicular suicide. Impact velocity may be maximized by exceeding speed limits or by maneuvering into a

head-on collision A head-on collision is a traffic collision where the front ends of two vehicles such as cars, trains, ships or planes hit each other when travelling in opposite directions, as opposed to a side collision or rear-end collision. Rail trans ...

with a heavier and less maneuverable vehicle like a

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...

semi-trailer truck A semi-trailer truck (also known by a wide variety of other terms – see below) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer attaches to the tractor with a type of hitch called ...

. Crash investigators found head-on collisions with heavier vehicles were a suicide method more common than the single vehicle crashes sometimes assumed to be more typical. These suicidal collisions may kill or injure others.

Implications

Aside from use for premeditated suicides, as commuters spend more time driving, vehicles may be available at the instant of a momentary and temporary impulse towards self-destruction fueled by

road rage Road rage is aggressive or angry behavior exhibited by people driving a vehicle. These behaviors include rude and verbal insults, yelling, physical threats or dangerous driving methods targeted at other drivers, pedestrians, or cyclists in an ...

. Suicides comprise nearly two-thirds of the 33,000 annual gun deaths in the United States. Motor vehicles remain widely available while

gun control Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms and ammunition by civilians. Most countries allow civilians to own firearms, bu ...

reduces access to firearms. The percentage of traffic fatalities which are suicides appears to be increasing with time based on the unpublished study. Understanding the fraction of traffic fatalities attributable to suicide is important because many traffic safety measures are unlikely to influence suicides. Unmeasured suicides in

empirical data Empirical evidence is evidence obtained through sense experience or experimental procedure. It is of central importance to the sciences and plays a role in various other fields, like epistemology and law. There is no general agreement on how the ...

used to evaluate traffic safety measures will result in systematic underestimation of effectiveness for non-suicidal road users. People can also stand or walk in front of oncoming traffic; this is different from

insurance fraud Insurance fraud is any intentional act committed to deceive or mislead an insurance company during the application or claims process, or the wrongful denial of a legitimate claim by an insurance company. It occurs when a claimant knowingly attem ...

as the person in question is trying to intentionally cause fatal bodily injuries to themselves.

References

{{Suicide navbox Traffic collisions

Suffocation

Traffic collisions

Implications

See also

References